Game based on combinations of words and implemented by computer means

ABSTRACT

The game uses a computer system with a gaming site coupled to gaming terminals. A search engine receives requests containing a starting word or a combination of a starting word and an additional word, and responds by delivering a numerical score representative of the number of web page hits found. Winning points are allocated to the player finding the additional word which, in combination with the starting word, produces the highest possible score. In a preferred implementation of the game, the starting word is a trademark, thus making it possible to incorporate branding content, and thereby provide an original method of advertising that ensures privileged exposure of the trademark with the actual wording of the trademark constituting one of the essential parameters of the game. The terminal and the players can be installed in a television studio and successive sessions of the game can be broadcast. The terminal could also be a cell phone or a personal computer remotely connected to the gaming site. In another implementation, the starting word is selected by a player from a predefined set of words, or is selected by the gaming site from a predefined set of words. In yet another implementation, the gaming site presents the player with a series of additional words and asks the player to select therefrom or to classify three, four, or five words amongst those proposed to the player, like betting on three, four, or five horses.

CONTEXT OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a game implemented by computer means, in which a player selects a combination of words giving a numerical score, possibly enabling the player to be allocated winning points.

2. Description of the Related Art

The recent development of applications associated with using the Internet has made the use of search engines such as Google (registered trademark of Google Inc.) or Exalead (registered trademark of Exalead SA) popular when searching for information, because of the capacity of such search engines to index the content of. several billions of pages that are available for consultation on all kinds of Internet site.

These search engines (sometimes referred to below as “engines”) are used by sending them a request containing a word or a “phrase”, i.e. a combination or string of words. The engine responds to requests in a fraction of a second, delivering a numerical score representative of the number of page hits containing the word (or the words in the phrase) amongst all of the pages indexed by the engine, together with a list of corresponding pertinent Internet sites.

The number of hits (sometimes referred to below as the “score” or the “numerical score”) returned by the engine depends to a very large extent on the words selected to make up the request. For some words it can reach tens or even hundreds of thousands or millions, whereas for others it can be no more than a very small number. If the user submits terms that are very general, the score will be very high; conversely, if the user gives a very precise designation, then the score will be smaller.

Furthermore, when a phrase comprising a plurality of words is submitted to the engine, a combination of terms that are very general, but that are situated in semantic fields that are extremely different, usually leads to a very small number of references, since the probability of finding two or more of these words simultaneously in the same indexed Internet page is extremely small.

Thus, the numerical score depends not only on the general or specialized character of the terms used, but also on the greater or lesser semantic proximity of the various words of the combination of words submitted to the engine.

Games have already been proposed that use these engines, e.g. a game known as “Google Walk”, which consists in finding a combination of fewer than ten words that gives rise to a single reference being returned by the engine, i.e. a combination of words giving a numerical score equal to unity, neither more, nor (above all) less. The drawback of that game, regardless of its recreational quality, is that the final result, e.g. “hamlet bandoneon tax gun paris” does not have any meaning, so such a game is almost a game of chance, the final result often being no more than a site that contains pure word lists, for example lists of words for providing assistance in playing games such as Scrabble (registered trademark).

One of the objects of the invention is to propose a game implemented by computer means using one or more engines, that is suitable for increasing player motivation by calling on player shrewdness and by reducing the content of chance in the progress of the game.

Numerous interactive electronic games are known, e.g. those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,754 (“System and method for interactive game-play scheduled based on real-life events”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,460 (“Method and apparatus for coordinating an interactive computer game with a broadcast television program”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,074 (“Interactive quiz game system and method”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,974 (“Interactive game system”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,272 (“Multiplayer interactive electronic game for health education”), U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,991 (“Interactive consumer product promotion method and match game”), U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,075 (“Interactive multimedia game system and method”), U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,379 (“Electronically interactive location-based multimedia game system and method”), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,535 (“Method of processing interactive game, program product and game system for the same”), the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

That said, and as can be seen below, the game of the invention is not specifically a game based on knowledge or erudition, i.e. it is the game that is accessible to a wide audience, insofar as it requires the player only to seek entertainment and hope for a win, without testing a player's general and cultural knowledge.

Another object of the invention is to propose an original method of advertising making it possible by incorporating branding content in the game of the invention to provide privileged exposure of a given trademark by using the actual wording of the trademark as one of the essential parameters of the game.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a game consisting in allocating winning points to players by means of a computer system comprising: at least one terminal suitable for presenting data to a player and for enabling the player to provide parameters for the system; a gaming site coupled to each of said at least one terminal; and a search engine. The terminal and the site submit requests to the search engine, each request containing a starting word or a plurality of words grouped together in a phrase comprising a starting word and an additional word; and they receive in response a numerical score representative of the number of hits for the word or the phrase, in a set of web pages indexed by the search engine.

The game comprises the following sequence of successive steps: a) determining the starting word and submitting a request containing the starting word; b) receiving an initial score corresponding to said request containing the starting word; c) selecting an additional word and submitting a request containing a phrase including the starting word and the selected additional word, separated by a separator (advantageously a space, as in the usual syntax for search engines); d) receiving the score, lower than the initial score, corresponding to the request made in step c); e) reiterating steps c) and d) (N−1) times using a different additional word each time, thus giving N respective scores corresponding to the N additional words selected in succession; and f) allocating winning points to one or more players in application of a rule that is a function of said N scores and of said parameters supplied to the system by the respective players.

The starting word determined in step a) may in particular be a trademark, or else a word selected by a player from a set of predefined words, or indeed a word selected by the gaming site from a set of predetermined words.

In a first implementation, the parameters supplied by the players to the system comprise said additional words, each player selecting at least one respective additional word. The winning points are then allocated to the player who selects the additional word giving the highest score amongst the end scores, or else in a variant (at the choice of the player), to the player who has selected the additional word giving the non-zero score that is the lowest amongst the N scores. Under such circumstances, the additional word is preferably selected so as to maximize the distance between the respective semantic fields of the starting word and of the additional word.

In another implementation, the game further comprises, between steps e) and f), the following intermediate steps: the gaming site selecting a starting word and N additional words, and determining a real classification for the N additional words as a function of their respective scores; the gaming site submitting to the player the N associated words presented in arbitrary order; and the player drawing up an estimated classification of M words (where M≦N), selected from the N additional words presented, said parameters supplied to the system by the player comprising said estimated classification. Step f) is then a step of allocating winning points to the player who has provided the estimated classification that is the closest to the real classification.

The terminal and the players may be installed in a television studio, with successive sessions of the game being broadcast. In a variant or in addition, the terminal may be a cell phone or a personal computer, the gaming site being a remote site connected by telecommunications means to a plurality of terminals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention can advantageously be implemented by means of an Internet site to which the player can make a connection using a computer.

However this particular configuration is not limiting in any way, it being possible to implement the invention in other ways, providing there exist means for implementing interactive both-way data exchange between the player and a remote site, i.e. the gaming site organizing the running of the various steps of the method of the invention. The invention may in particular be implemented by means of cell phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) suitable for exchanging data with the gaming site via a cellular network, using various well-known technologies such as SMS, WAP, GPRS, UMTS-3G, etc. Users of such networks can thus occupy spare time (in public transport, waiting rooms, etc.) by playing the game of the invention.

Each microcomputer or cell phone is connected to the gaming site and can display text messages on a screen, in particular information received from the gaming site, with the option for the player of keying in alphanumeric data and sending it back to the gaming site. The gaming site also formats messages as a function of the type of terminal in use, computer or telephone: web pages readable using a browser, or WAP pages that are better adapted to display on a screen of small size.

In addition to the variety of terminals used by players, the gaming site is also coupled to at least one search engine to which it can apply the requests formulated by players and receive in response respective numerical scores. The gaming site may be coupled to a plurality of search engines, in which case it will deliver to the player a response that is a combination of the various scores obtained (arithmetic mean of the number of hits, maximum/minimum number of hits, etc.).

The starting point of the invention lies in the observation that an engine provides not only links to all the pages containing a given word, but also provides additional information, itself of very great value, namely the number of pages on which the word appears (which number is referred to below as the “score” or numerical score”).

This information is generally to be found under the heading “results” as returned by such engines.

For example {celery} gives a score of 1,400,000 hits (by convention, curly braces are used in the body of the text of the present description to specify the term or series of terms submitted to the engine). This score is higher than the score for {pepper} (810,000), but lower than the score for {caviar} (13,500,000).

A finer function of search engines consists in searching for occurrences not of a single word, but of two, three, or more words united in a “phrase” in a given request. For example {caviar truffle} returns 137,000 occurrences. From which it can be deduced that amongst the 13,500,000 pages containing {caviar}, only about one in a hundred also contains the word {truffle}.

It is this property of engines that the game of the present invention seeks specifically to use.

Essentially, the game is based on the idea that consists in initially selecting a first word (referred to below as the “starting word”), and then finding another word (referred to below as the “additional word”) that will produce a higher score.

Thus, the starting word {transport} gives about 48,000,000 hits. It is then up to the player to find an additional word which, in combination with {transport}, will produce the highest possible number of hits.

For example, {beach} is a bad choice: the engine finds only about 2,300 hits for the phrase {transport beach}.

Whereas {airplane}, {subway}, and above all {train} provide much better results:

word(s) score transport 48,000,000 transport airplane 585,000 transport subway 1,250,000 transport train 2,800,000 transport journey 1,140,000 transport car 611,000

It is hardly any surprise to find that it is {train} that constitutes the best word, better than {subway} or {car}.

However when looking a little deeper into what appears to the player to be the lexical field of {transport}, it is possible to find something better than {train}:

word(s) score transport bus 3,400,000

Giving for {bus} a score better than {train}.

It is thus finally the word {bus} that wins—at least amongst the above six attempts.

A composite word made up of a combination of terms, e.g. {“railway line”} can be deemed to be equivalent to an additional word constituted by a single term in the above example (where the quotation marks correspond to the syntax used when interrogating search engines, i.e. the engine searches for occurrences of the non-separable string of words between the quotation marks).

Account can be taken of the number of attempts made by each player in order to reduce winnings with increasing numbers of attempts. Conversely, a bonus may be offered to the player who finds the winning word in a single attempt.

Advantageously, prior to delivering the score for the phrase containing the selected additional word, the game provides for verifying the score of the additional word taken in isolation, and for refusing the additional word if, on its own, it presents a score that is higher than that of the starting word. This makes it possible to avoid the game being biased by selecting as additional words terms that are relatively meaningless, such as an article or an adverb, thereby necessarily giving a high score.

Preferred Implementation of the Invention

In a preferred implementation, the starting word is a trademark: a trademark for food, cars, cosmetics, banking, etc.

Under such circumstances, the starting word, i.e. the trademark, is selected using rules established by an advertising space purchase service as a function of guidelines concerning the way in which the advertiser seeks to ensure presence of the trademark: duration of trademark exposure (conditioning the duration of the game or of a round of the game); time(s) of occurrence; periodicity; etc.

The game of the invention enables the trademark to be presented throughout the entire duration of a round, and to make players reflect on combinations of words involving the trademark, so that the trademark is used actively while playing, unlike operations in which games are sponsored by trademarks, in which case the trademarks appear only in the background.

The running of the game can be expressed in particular by the simplified metalanguage flow chart given below which is given purely by way of illustration (SW stands for starting word, AW stands for additional word):

-   -   input(SW)     -   get score(SW)     -   counter=0     -   while not STOP         -   input(AW)         -   test score(AW)<score(SW)         -   get score(SW+AW)         -   if score(AW)>Highest then Highest=score(AW)         -   counter=counter+1         -   if counter>10 then END     -   wend

Second Implementation of the Invention

In this implementation, the words are words of ordinary language selected from groups of words belonging to previously-identified fields. By way of example, these fields may be: cinema, literature, history, politics, celebrities, music, etc. A part of the preparatory work consists in identifying fields, and also the starting words that are derived therefrom, in such a way as to make the game more interesting.

For example the user may select a particular field, with the gaming site automatically selecting the starting word from that field, and with it then being up to the player to find the most pertinent additional words.

The score may be presented either as a number of hits for the combination {(starting word) (additional word)}, or in the form of a ratio between the combination score and the starting word score taken in isolation.

Thus, in the following example, the score is given in the form of the above-mentioned ratio multiplied by 1000 in order to make it more readable. This products:

word(s) score ratio * 1000 love 24,800,000 1,000 love woman 3,269,079 131,818 love man 3,245,000 130,862 love children 2,552,000 102,938 love sex 2,106,000 84,927 love marriage 1,590,450 64,131 love song 1,207,625 48,695 love fuse 3,002 0,121 love unmarried 557,101 22,464 love disappointed 252,736 10,191 love divorce 218,617 8,815 love boiler 11,828 0,477

It is generally found that for a result less than 1, i.e. when the ratio is less than 1%, the additional word is a word off topic, i.e. the additional word does not belong to the same semantic field as the starting word.

In a variant, it is possible to use this property for allocating winning points to the player who finds the additional word that gives rise to the score that is not the highest but on the contrary the (non-zero) score that is the lowest.

Under such circumstances, the game is no longer based on the “sense” of the words, but on the contrary on “non-sense”, with the winner being the player finding the additional word finding the most unexpected association. Thus, if the starting word is {“Marilyn Monroe”}, then the following attempts can be made:

word(s) score “Marilyn Monroe” 1,740,000 “Marilyn Monroe” demonic 220 “Marilyn Monroe” “cake slice” 4

In yet another variant, instead of starting a round with a starting word constituted by a word in isolation (e.g. {love}), it is possible to envisage taking as the starting word a combination of words (e.g. {love woman}).

After an initial round begun with an isolated starting word, a recompense can then consist in giving the winning player the option to select a combination of words to be used as the starting word for the following round in which the other players compete.

Third Implementation of the Invention

This other implementation is referred to as “three horse sense”. For a given starting word (e.g. {transport}), the gaming site selects a plurality of words (e.g. {bus}, {train}, and {subway}) and presents these words to the player without giving the scores and in an arbitrary order, asking the player to select amongst these words the words which according to the player will give the highest score—or in a variant will give the best two scores or the best three scores, which amounts to the game being one of classifying the words in order of decreasing score.

It is also possible to ask the player to select or classify three, four, or five words taken from ten or twenty words proposed to the player, like betting on three, four, or five horses. Naturally, the more pertinent the selections and/or classifications, the greater the number of winning points allocated, and vice versa.

Media Usable for Implementing the Game

As mentioned above, the game can be played alternatively and/or cumulatively on a variety of media, essentially:

television: players are present in the studio and the game is broadcast, preferably live so that viewers can also participate;

Internet, using a computer connected to the remote gaming site; and

cell phone and SMS, via a telecommunications network.

The telephone medium can be associated in particular with the television medium, in order to enable viewers of the broadcast game to participate directly, with viewers being invited to submit their own suggestions for additional words by SMS.

The various implementations described above are nevertheless not equally applicable to those three types of media.

Thus, using a trademark as the starting word is not authorized on television networks in some countries, for example France, which require advertising to be separate from the content proper of broadcasts.

In other countries, where those restrictions do not exist, that type of advertising action is not only possible, but is particularly advantageous in terms of its effectiveness.

The implementation using trademarks can be played without restriction on the Internet, because of the complete absence of regulation.

Furthermore, it should be observed that the implementation referred to as “three horse sense”, although not subject to any restriction due to regulation, is nevertheless not playable with a mobile telephone or on the Internet, simply because for a player having a computer available (or merely a second window on the computer), it is technically extremely easy to cheat by interrogating one or more engines to find winning combinations.

These various limitations can be summarized in the following table:

starting word = starting word = ordinary “three horse trademark word sense” medium = TV impossible, possible, possible, (in France) against without without regulation restriction restriction medium = TV possible, possible, possible, (other according to without without countries) regulation restriction restriction medium = web/ possible, possible, impossible, SMS without without technically restriction restriction 

1. A game implemented by means of a computer system, the system comprising: at least one terminal suitable for presenting data to a player and for enabling the player to provide parameters for the system; a gaming site coupled to each of said at least one terminal; and a search engine; the terminal and the site being suitable for: submitting requests to the search engine, each request containing a starting word or a plurality of words grouped together in a phrase comprising a starting word and an additional word; and receiving in response a numerical score representative of the number of hits for the word or the phrase, in a set of web pages indexed by the search engine; the game comprising the following sequence of successive steps: a) determining said starting word and submitting a request containing the starting word; b) receiving an initial score corresponding to said request containing the starting word; c) selecting an additional word and submitting a request containing a phrase including the starting word and the selected additional word, separated by a separator; d) receiving the score, lower than the initial score, corresponding to the request made in step c); e) reiterating steps c) and d) (N−1) times using a different additional word each time, thus giving N respective scores corresponding to the N additional words selected in succession; and f) allocating winning points to one or more players in application of a rule that is a function of said N scores and of said parameters supplied to the system by the respective players.
 2. The game of claim 1, in which said starting word determined in step a) is a trademark.
 3. The method of claim 1, in which said starting word determined in step a) is a word selected by a player from a predefined set of words.
 4. The method of claim 1, in which said starting word determined in step a) is a word selected by the gaming site from a predefined set of words.
 5. The game of claim 1, in which said parameters supplied by the players to the system comprise said additional words, each player selecting at least one respective additional word.
 6. The game of claim 5, in which in step f), winning points are allocated to the player who has selected the additional word giving the highest score amongst said N scores.
 7. The game of claim 5, in which in step f), winning points are allocated to the player who has selected the additional word giving the lowest non-zero score amongst said N scores.
 8. The game of claim 7, in which in step c), the additional word is selected to as to maximize the distance between the respective semantic fields of the starting word and of the additional word.
 9. The game of claim 5, further comprising a step consisting, prior to step c), in presenting the player with an alternative between i) being allocated in step f) winning points for selecting the additional word that gives the highest score amongst said N scores, or else ii) being allocated in step f) winning points for selecting the additional words giving the lowest non-zero score amongst said N scores.
 10. The game of claim 5, in which in step f), the winning points that are allocated decrease with increasing number N.
 11. The game of claim 1, further comprising, between steps e) and f), the following intermediate steps: the gaming site selecting a starting word and N additional words, and determining a real classification for the N additional words as a function of their respective scores; the gaming site submitting to the player the N associated words presented in arbitrary order; and the player drawing up an estimated classification of M words where M≦N, selected from the N additional words presented, said parameters supplied to the system by the player comprising said estimated classification; and in which, step f) is a step of: f) allocating winning points to the player who has provided the estimated classification that is the closest to the real classification.
 12. The game of claim 1, in which said terminal and the players are installed in a television studio, and the successive sessions of the game are broadcast.
 13. The game of claim 1, in which said terminal is a cell phone, and said gaming site is a remote site connected to a plurality of said terminals by telecommunications means.
 14. The game of claim 1, in which said terminal is a personal computer, and said gaming site is a remote site connected to a plurality of said terminals by telecommunications means. 